Acing Your English Class: Five Pieces of Advice for International Students– In this free little booklet, you’ll learn five practical tips to help you in your English classes. With a little communication and planning, I think you can make your English class a lot easier on yourself. You’ll find five specific things in this guide that you can do in your next English class. For more information, contact: Tools[at]studentinthestates.com

STUDENT IN THE STATES GUIDES

I’m creating a series of guides that will be offered for sale* here on the site. The guides will feature super practical information focused on writing, English, and student life. To be honest, I’m nervous about creating tools that cost you money. I know how expensive international student tuition is, along with your books and all the other expenses that come with living far from home. I don’t want you to spend money on something that doesn’t help you or doesn’t make your life easier, so if the information doesn’t look useful for you, that’s no problem. My writing on the site, the social networking website, and other free tools will always be free. Enjoy them, and buy something only if you really want it.

Coming in the near future– How to get an A on an Academic Paper – I’m working on a tool that will help you communicate better with your teachers, learn what matters most in academic writing, and tackle what you need to tackle to earn an A on your papers. This is not a quick-fix to getting good grades. I don’t know of a quick-fix to writing, so I can’t offer one. If you’d like a way to improve your writing strategically and over time, though, I’m happy to help! This will be an extensive tool (including a digital book, audio files, and worksheets). For more information, contact: Tools[at]studentinthestates.com

*If you are a student at my school and in any of my classes, it would be unethical for me to sell you anything. Please let me know if you’re interested in any of the information listed here.

STUDENT IN THE STATES SERVICES

I will be offering some services for sale* here on the site. The services are designed to help you get through your English classes, beat procrastination, and get going on your schoolwork. As I mentioned earlier, I’m nervous about creating tools that cost you money. At the same time, sometimes a little help can go far toward making your life easier. My writing on the site, the social networking website, and other free tools will always be free. Enjoy them, and buy something only if you really want it.

Crunch Time Help – from Thanksgiving through December 24th. The end of the semester/quarter is officially crunch-time, both for students and teachers. This is when I see students stumbling around the halls, with red eyes and expressions of warmed-over death. It’s no wonder. With the end of the semester and the holidays right around the corner, there are papers due, final exams coming up, and a semester’s worth of knowledge to synthesize in a short amount of time. With Crunch-Time Motivation, you’ll get study tips, pep talks, and motivation strategically placed around deadlines for your classes — tailored to your class schedule and to your study habits.

*If you are a student at my school and in any of my classes, it would be unethical for me to sell you anything. Please let me know if you’re interested in any of the information listed here.

FREE TOOLS WE’VE DISCOVERED

Write or Die– Write or Die is a free tool to help you beat procrastination. Basically, it’s a website that acts like a word processor. The trick is that, if you stop writing, Write or Die will remind you to start again. You can set the program to different settings. On the gentle setting, the program will flash red. In “normal” mode, the program will blare a loud noise if you stop. In Kamikaze mode, the program will actually erase your writing if you stop. It’s hard to procrastinate with motivation like that–

Backpack – Backpack is an organizational tool, more than a writing tool. It’s a website where you can create “pages” for your projects. On each page, you can create lists, add photos, write notes, keep a calendar, set reminders for yourself (via email or SMS), and keep a journal. You can also share pages with friends and create discussion boards with people you know. There is a paid version, but you can also use it for free.

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TOOLS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

We're always on the lookout for tools that can help international students studying in the United States -- especially tools to help with writing in English. Below are links to the tools we've found and created for you. Many of these tools are free.

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About Us

Student in the States was started by a college English teacher, Kathryn, who noticed that international students faced a particular set of struggles when adjusting to the American classroom. Kathryn blogs about student issues, focusing especially on writing and English. The site also includes a social networking site for international students and a collection of online tools to help students with writing, research, and organization. You can contact Kathryn via email: kathryn[at]studentinthestates.com.